Sharing Our Experiences

Most recently I missed my appearance on the Good Morning Show concerning children and chores due to my daughter going into labour. I managed to watch the show and enjoyed the comments and advice but thought id share my thoughts on how your child can help with your list of household chores, or at least how my children do.

All our children help with our list of household chores, right from Mr 20 down to Miss 2. Each and every individual in our household has a responsibility to our family and to ensuring we live in a clean and tidy space and chores are a great way of teaching not only responsibility but also pride in ones work. But believe you me, our household is not an immaculately sparkling kept place!

We usually start at a young age with little things like picking up after themselves.

Toddlers love to help and as soon as they are able to tip out the toy box, they are old enough to pick up those toys and put them back into the toy box. After showers the toddlers can help by putting their dirty washing in the laundry and wiping up the bathroom floor. They are easy tasks but you will find that your toddler will be excited to help and love the praise given when completing a set task.

Praise is important when starting to teach chores.

Children like to please and if positive enforcement is given then they will continue to complete tasks without too much fuss. It is important to also remember that if taught right from a young age, this will usually carry through to their older years.

So when teaching your toddlers to pick up after themselves, ensure its ALL the toys they took out and not just a couple and be persistent in having them finish off the job. Its fine to help, helping is another skill that you can show your child while cleaning up.

As your child gets older, between 5-7 then keeping their room clean, making their beds and washing dishes can be added to their list of household chores. At this age you can start to have them help preparing food or cooking. All our children from 6 upwards make their own lunches before going to school. During preparation of the evening meal, they are encouraged to help with peeling vegetables, clearing benches, stirring mixtures and tidying up after the person cooking.

As for those that are 10-20 years of age, they do all the outside work, clearing up and putting out the rubbish and recycling, washing the clothes, hanging it out to dry and folding individual piles for the owners to put away.

All our children are expected to keep their bedrooms tidy and each morning the routine is usually: to wake up, make their bed, tidy their room, shower, eat breakfast, make lunch, tidy up after themselves and get to school on time.

We are able to gauge alot from our children in their help with our list of household chores, first and foremost is whether they complete the job to the standard that they have been shown. Your child starts to be proud of their achievements at home and a sparkling bathroom, perfectly vaccuumed hallway or the smell of clean washing can help to identify a “job well done” to your child. They feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement when provided praise for a completed task. Eventually consistent praise will not be required because they will be proud of their own efforts. Chores also engender self pride in ones efforts and seeing a task through to completion.

We also see chores as a way of each child contributing towards our family as a whole.

They may not be able to pay the bills, put food on the table, or ensure they have clothes and shoes to wear but they can help by sharing in the list of household chores.

Our families list of household chores is split up into 3 major parts: the living room – washing, hallway, stairs and foyer; the kitchen/dining room and finally the bathrooms/toilets, rubbish and recycling. These have been the 3 major chores since our 20 year old was 5 and has been split amongst our children as each got to a capable age.

Now that our teenagers receive an income they have come up with their own creative plan to evade the 3 major chores. The 3 eldest pay pocket money to their 3 younger siblings. This doesnt mean that they dont still help around the house, because they do … our teens are the washing, rubbish, recycling and outside yard cleanup crew.

We also had conditions on pocket money, as we have never made it a practice to pay our children for doing chores, it is their responsibility as a member of this family to help out and since we already house, feed and clothe our children, pocket money isnt a necessity. But with our 3 eldest children they had become busy with sports practices, work, study and other commitments that they believed they could achieve this easier through having the younger children do their share of the 3 major chores. And so the new chore regime began. Each week our 3 eldest pay their 13, 11 and 10 year old brothers and sister $20.00 each, of which $15.00 is deposited into their bank accounts and $5 is given to each child to spend as they please.

And what happens you may say when the chore is not done or when someone doesnt do their chore correctly … easy!

1. If your chore is not completed correctly within 45 minutes then you will be required to complete all 3 chores for the next week
2. If the chore is done within 45 minutes but not correctly, you will complete that chore again until it is done correctly and if it goes over your allocated 45 minutes then option 1 applies!

Most of the time because of the above, we have no issue with chores and if there is, you will find one of our children washing every single dish, pot and spoon in our kitchen!

There has to be consequences for lack of contribution to our list of household chores. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind to ensure that your children complete set tasks … tenacity, self pride, responsibility and job satisfaction is something that the adult world doesnt wait to be learnt, so save a stitch in time and teach your child now … that way they’ll be prepared for those adult steps!